{"id":4780,"date":"2012-05-04T14:52:37","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T14:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quintessential.org.uk\/sa-mathieson\/?p=4780"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:09:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:09:30","slug":"patients-get-results-before-gps-with-open-source-renal-patientview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samathieson.com\/sa-mathieson\/patients-get-results-before-gps-with-open-source-renal-patientview\/","title":{"rendered":"Open source test results service adopted by renal patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is an unusual example of a system built by a couple of NHS organisations in one nation &#8211; health boards in Scotland in this case &#8211; which is then adopted by units across the UK.<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><!-- GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/government-computing-network\/2012\/may\/04\/open-source-software-renal-test-results\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardian.png\" alt=\"Powered by Guardian.co.uk\" width=\"140\" height=\"45\" \/>This article titled &#8220;Open source test results service adopted by renal patients&#8221; was written by SA Mathieson, for theguardian.com on Friday 4th May 2012 08.59 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Patients of 53 renal units across the UK are accessing results and clinical letters through a secure online system, often meaning they get the information faster than their GPs.<\/p>\n<p>Renal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.renalpatientview.org\" title=\"\">PatientView<\/a> is used by 19,000 patients who have opted-in to accessing their results online. The system also lets patients add their own data &#8211; such blood pressure &#8211; access online information about their condition and is being adapted to allow them to pass comments on their care back to hospital units.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Keith Simpson, consultant nephrologist at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow, told the HC2012 conference in London that data is extracted from renal units&#8217; systems every six to 24 hours, depending on its importance. It is sent in encrypted form across NHS networks to a secure online server for patients to access. &#8220;The patient will normally see this before their GP,&#8221; he said, as renal units do not generally send results and letters to GPs electronically.<\/p>\n<p>The system, which was launched in 2005 and developed by staff from Glasgow&#8217;s Western Infirmary and Edinburgh&#8217;s Royal Infirmary, runs on open source software available for others to use. Units pay a fee to join, while it is free for patients. A similar system for bowel disease patients, using the software, will start this year.<\/p>\n<p>Simpson said that many users log on to the system on the first day following a test, and a substantial number do likewise, just before an appointment. &#8220;Doctor may want to take note of this,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Patients are very well-informed, and want to take part.&#8221; Users tend to log on during work days, rather than weekends and bank holidays.<\/p>\n<p>The system requires just a username and password for access, but Simpson said that research with users found that very few were concerned about security, that 40% shared their passwords with other people and that many thought the data should also be used for research.<\/p>\n<p>He said that future plans for the system include allowing records to be transferred between different participating renal units, linking to primary care systems such as Scotland&#8217;s emergency care summary and England&#8217;s summary care record, and functionality for rare diseases. So far, no work has been done on whether it improves clinical outcomes for patients.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This article is published by Guardian Professional. <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/reg.guardian.managemyaccount.co.uk\/gov-computing\/start.php\" title=\"\"><strong>For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Guardian Government Computing network here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>guardian.co.uk &#169; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n<p>Published via the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/open-platform\/news-feed-wordpress-plugin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Guardian plugin page\">Guardian News Feed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/the-guardian-news-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wordress plugin page\">plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK-wide online system letting patients see results within hours of a test may be used by other specialities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,6,7,10,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-healthcare","category-hospitals","category-it","category-scotland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Patients get results before GPs with open source Renal PatientView<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Patients of 53 renal units across the UK are accessing test results and clinical letters through Renal PatientView, a secure, open source online system\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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